Bjoern Brembs

Current

Heisenberg Fellow at Freie Universität Berlin
Associate Editor at Journal of Visualized Experiments (JoVE)
Associate Editor at JoVE.com

Academic Editor at PLoS One

see less...

1 more...

Past

Independent Researcher at Freie Universität Berlin
Postdoctoral researcher at University of Texas, Houston
Graduate Student at Universität Würzburg

see less...

Education

Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg

Recommended

1 person has recommended Bjoern

Connections

100 connections

Industry

Research

Websites

Bjoern Brembs’s Summary

My main research topics focus around the general organization of behavior with regards to reward, punishment and decision making: How do brains accomplish adaptive behavioral choice? All animals possess a repertoire of inborn behaviors and continuously modify and adjust them to meet the requirements of the environment by learning. To study these processes, I use operant (instrumental) conditioning paradigms and contrast them with classical (Pavlovian) conditioning situations in flies (Drosophila) and snails (Aplysia). Such comparisons highlight the differences and similarities between behavioral and environmental learning, the two forms of predictive learning.

After now 10 years of research in this field, I begin to have the suspicion that the main function of brains may be best described in terms of output/input systems. Brains generate spontaneous behavior and monitor the incoming sensory stream for the portion which is controlled by the behavior. Operant behavior and operant learning are the main mechanisms by which this function is accomplished.

Related past research interests include the neurobiology of aggression, behavioral ecology, the evolution of cooperation and evolutionary psychology.

Bjoern Brembs’s Specialties:

Methods used include a number behavioral paradigms in various invertebrate and vertebrate model systems, in vitro conditioning of isolated nervous systems, opto- and electrophysiology, mutants/transgenes, molecular biology and some pharmacology. Computer modeling of simple networks complements the experimental work.

Bjoern Brembs’s Experience

Heisenberg Fellow

Freie Universität Berlin

(Educational Institution; Research industry)

June 2009 — Present (6 months)
Associate Editor

Journal of Visualized Experiments (JoVE)

(Information Technology and Services industry)

July 2008 — Present (1 year 5 months)
Associate Editor

JoVE.com

(Research industry)

2008 — Present (1 year )
Academic Editor

PLoS One

(Research industry)

November 2006 — Present (3 years 1 month)

Handling the communication between authors and reviewers.
Independent Researcher

Freie Universität Berlin

(Educational Institution; Research industry)

December 2003 — June 2009 (5 years 7 months)
Postdoctoral researcher

University of Texas, Houston

(Educational Institution; 10,001 or more employees; Research industry)

April 2000 — December 2003 (3 years 9 months)
Graduate Student

Universität Würzburg

(Educational Institution; 10,001 or more employees; Research industry)

October 1996 — March 2000 (3 years 6 months)